I shouldn't have, but I clicked on a video titled 'if I was starting youtube from scratch, this is what I'd do'. I don't usually do that (anymore), but this time, it was someone I forgotten i was following and I wanted to see where they were at, what their message was now, how they evolved.
I'm not going to talk about the creator herself, I want to talk about the content of the video instead. Because it so typical it made me mad.
the structure makes sense, the arguments are proven with data, the person clearly has done this before - that's not the issue. The issue is : never in any second of that video is the person even mentioning THINKING about what you want to say before you start filming.
In fact, the structure she talks about requires no thinking what so ever, and to just 'do the stuff that's successful on other creator's channels and pages', and 'follow this exact structure'.
and... aren't we past that? as a culture, as a generation, as responsable people?
The submessage of this type of content is : to become successful online (which is always framed as 'getting tons of views', which is not really the same thing but well), you need to BE this exact sort of person, that says this exact sort of thing.
worst part is, this message is coupled with the idea that 'people will tune in because it's you'. but if you're saying the same things as everyone else, and doing the same things as everybody else, and filming the same way as everybody else and... what's the point of having eyes on you if you can't be yourself?
I guess this means I need to tackle the prompt 'if I was to start again....', and make it actually useful. Yeah, this is a better vector of ideas than a rant, let's do that.
If I had to start online again, I'd :
follow my curiosity 450% more
I've been so miserable trying to do stuff for the sake of 'success' or 'money'. My favorite and often most lucrative opportunities came from me being myself fully and talking about thing that genially interested me, in the way I was most comfortable doing it.
make more friends / participate in conversations / send emails to people I admire
My autistic self has got to admit that even though it's extremely draining, it's also the most interesting part of being online. So I don't like social conversations, but commenting on other people's posts, engaging with the content, sending emails to people I admire and telling them specifically what I find cool about them... That's the stuff. i wish I had been more aware of this sooner.
produce volume / be a prolific scrappy creator from the start
This might sound contradictory to what I was saying earlier, but I do believe in volume. I believe the good stuff cannot surface if you don't disturb the waters. you can always delete later, you can always do it again, you can always go back on your words and change your mind. it's cheap, do more of it and don't be precious about what it looks like PLEASE. oh what ideas I could have had and projects I could have launched if I wasn't too precious about what I look like on camera, or if that PDF is professional enough.
develop opinions / theories / ideas
same idea really, but it took me too long to stop playing the game of parrotting people with some success and to start actually writing about what was in my head. and when I did, well, it's a whole new level of confidence and competency baby. it's also 100% more marketable.
stop doing the stuff I don't want to do
I'm riffing off the same theme but it took me sooooo long to consider I didn't have to make videos of my face if I didn't want to make videos of my face. everything else becomes easier once you allow yourself to don't do the stuff you don't want to do. (see : let AI lace your shoes)
I think that's all. I can't guarantee this will give you views, fame, 10K months and what not. But I'll guarantee one thing : you'll get opportunities, pride in yourself and an enormous slice of FUN.